Counterfeiting is on the rise. The accessibility of production markets with little or no regulation and low labor cost coupled with demand for inexpensive product provides a strong market for counterfeit products. While all counterfeit products adversely effect the bona fide manufacturers' profitability, certain counterfeit goods can have an adverse, if not fatal, effect on the consumer's health. For example, a counterfeit medicinal product can have a fatal effect on a patient's health if it includes inappropriate dosage of the active ingredient.
More recently, counterfeit drugs and medicinal products have entered the market through direct email to potential consumers. Advertisements for popular pharmaceutical products such as Lipitor®, Viagra® and Ambien® are ubiquitous. Counterfeiters take advantage of the popularity of these products and send direct emails to potential consumers who may wish to self-prescribe or obtain the product at a lower price. While this type of counterfeiting is a problem, what is much more troubling is the fact that counterfeiters are now infiltrating the supply chain that exists between the manufacturer and the distribution point to the consumer, such as a neighborhood pharmacy. Counterfeiters who insert their counterfeit products into the supply chain can do so by, for example, reproducing the existing markings (e.g., barcodes, visible security markings, lot numbers, etc.) on a product or the package for a product then introducing their counterfeit products with the reproduced markings in the supply chain at a supply chain node, such as a distributor's warehouse. Consequently, unsuspecting and unwitting doctors, pharmacists, and consumers who think that they are prescribing, distributing, and consuming authentic products are actually being duped into dealing with counterfeit products. This method of counterfeiting is especially insidious and dangerous and has the potential to ruin the trust doctors, pharmacists, and consumers have in the products that are being prescribed let alone the harm caused to the consumer by consuming products that are potentially harmful. Furthermore, counterfeiting by placing fraudulent products that are seemingly real into the supply chain for authentic products is in no way limited to drugs and medical products. Rather, this counterfeiting procedure can be replicated in just about any product supply chain. Thus, the potential for harm due to supply chain counterfeiting is enormous.
While bona fide manufacturers incorporate various means, such as bar codes, to verify a product's authenticity, sophisticated counterfeiters are able to match most such identifications. For example, one-dimensional bar codes have been conventionally printed on the product's packaging. Such barcodes have been readily and accurately reproduced on the counterfeit product's packaging. Similarly, product markings which often appear on the ingestible solid medications such as tablets and capsules are readily and accurately reproduced in the counterfeit product. Additionally, while counterfeit drugs and medical products are often sold directly to the consumer, a portion of such products can find its way to regular distribution channels such as pharmacies, clinics and hospitals. These distribution channels have a responsibility to provide authentic products and would face substantial liabilities should they dispense a counterfeit product. Accordingly, there is a need for a method and apparatus for providing protection against counterfeit products.